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May 10, 1973

Tuscaloosa, AL US

Setlist:

includes: Rock and Roll, Celebration Day, (Bring It On Home intro) Black Dog, Over the Hills and Far Away, Misty Mountain Hop, Since I've Been Loving You, No Quarter, The Song Remains the Same, Rain Song, Dazed and Confused (incl. San Francisco), Stairway to Heaven, Moby Dick, Heartbreaker, Whole Lotta Love (incl. Let That Boy Boogie)

Notes:

Press Review: Thursday night’s Led Zeppelin concert at Memorial Coliseum was not a University of Alabama activity. For one thing, most university students have gone home. For another, university students are older than teenie boppers.

The place was packed, though, with 15,000 or 16,000 kids who loved Led Zeppelin. They had to. Inside the Coliseum it must have been 100 degrees, with so much moisture that it was practically raining.

How did I sit through all of that? I didn’t. I couldn’t have even if I wanted to. Unless you were a diehard and hot there early (I’m not and I didn’t), there were no seats where the show could be seen.It was however, a good show. Led Zeppelin brought, I’m told, everything the Stones carried on their famous tour except it was all bigger, better brighter and louder.

The sound system was incredible, the lighting creative. There were even global prisms to surprise everybody at the end of Stairway to Heaven, the new Zeppelin hit.

Otherwise, it was all very depressing to me. I saw too many kids who were going to get into too much trouble, too early, at too great a cost.Since the concert was obviously not a service to university students (though I did see a handful there), the whole thing raises two questions. Who makes the money? And is it worth the price? [J. Salem / 5-11-73]

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Comments

Submit your personal review of a particular show you attended, updates, corrections, etc., which will be considered for addition to the official online archive.You may also contact the webmaster at: webmaster@ledzeppelin.com

I was there. My Sophomore year in Tuscaloosa, University of Alabama. Several rows back, slumped low in my seat, engulfed by weed and hash smoke. I don’t remember who opened for Zep. There’s a lot I don’t remember about my college days, but I usually remember most things about music.

Music was my life. Well, a major part of my life. Bama football was also my passion. It still is.

But music was my therapist, my surrogate mate, my sanctuary. I could always count on music. It would always be there and always comfort and soothe me.

So it was Zep’s heyday. As I look back on it, it was probably my heyday, too. May, 1973. The lights dimmed; the Bic lighters flashed like frenzied lightning bugs punctuating the darkness. Plant emerged like Venus on the Half Shell in the lights and haze.

By the time Zep hit the stage, we were so mellow, the roar of applause was more of a rumble that shook Memorial Coliseum like a primal earthquake.

They kicked off the set with Rock and Roll. We were mesmerized. Singing every word and yowling every note verbatim. Some of us were deep into the music and listened intently. Eyes closed to block anything that would distract from the sheer delicious moment.

We immersed ourselves into the music. When Plant moved, we moved. When he groaned and yelped, we felt it. When Bonham beat the Holy hell out of his drum kit, we felt each crack and explosion of his wood drumsticks in our solar plexus. When Page pulled, teased and coaxed unearthly sounds from his guitar, we devoured and tasted every nuance like it was our Death Row meal.

The set list had all the good stuff: Celebration Day, Black Dog, Over the Hills and Far Away, Misty Mountain Hop, Since I’ve Been Loving You, No Quarter, The Song Remains the Same, Rain Song, Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven, Moby Dick, Heartbreaker, and, yes, Whole Lotta Love.

Yes, it was a Whole Lotta Love. And still is.

Come to Vintage Basement and check out our great Led Zeppelin t-shirts.